King Charles Notes

Why is it that the coins of the new monarch have been long out but it will not be till mid of 2024 before the banknotes will come out? It's bizarrely long time unless they need to ensure that the certain amount of damaged ER II notes return to the central bank before the new lot could make into the public.

You are correct.  From the Bank of England:

In line with guidance from the Royal Household to minimise the environmental and financial impact of the change of monarch, existing stocks of notes featuring HM Queen Elizabeth II will continue to be issued into circulation. New notes will only be printed to replace worn banknotes and to meet any overall increase in demand for banknotes.

I know it's been a little while since you asked the question, but just to follow on from TheGamesBond. As they state, they simply don't want to replace the entire lot of banknotes in the UK on a whim (Approx. 4.6 billion individual physical notes*), especially given that it would be fairly environmentally unfriendly. Given Charles' known love of the environment, it's not surprising he asked for them not to replace the ER II notes for “no reason”. I mean, we all know he's King whether it's his face on the money or not.

Also the first, and so far only, coin featuring CR III coin to go into general circulation was a commemorative issue. They didn't go particularly overboard with it either. The quantity is somewhat comparable to many of the recent commemorative releases (e.g. Each of the four featuring Paddington).

If you think about it in that way, it's perhaps not as weird. The Royal Mint has released one commemorative coin featuring CR III for general circulation. The Royal Mint has issued exactly zero new “standard” coins for general circulation at the time of writing. However, the BoE does not issue commemorative notes, only standard circulation notes. From that perspective, neither standard coins or banknotes featuring CR III have actually been released.

The new standard coins will probably begin to roll out over the next few years, as will the new standard banknotes. I believe I'm correct in saying the new standard £1 coins are expected to come out in late 2023 (though I've not heard about any of the other coins) and the first new standard banknotes will come out summer 2024. As such, there's not actually as big a gap as you might first think.

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*Billion using the short-scale method. I.e. 4,600,000,000 or 4.6 thousand-million, NOT million-million. According to the BoE themselves.

This topic was also discussed on this “New King Charles Banknote” thread re: Commonwealth & UK design changes.  From the past transitions between King George VI & his daughter (Elizabeth), some UK territories were fairly quick (after her coronation) with the modification to their currency. 

England took forever (8 years) to put QEII on their notes probably b/c it was a new tradition, I suppose.  

Typically, the average time to change a Commonwealth design (recognition of QEII) was 2 years after the modification of the nation's coins. Things have changed considerably (particularly the monarchy's relevance) in the past 70 years & with Australia's rejection, Barbados* decision to become a republic, etc  it may take a little longer for the adoption of CR III designs.  Some countries may even pay homage (respect) to the late queen by keeping her QEII designed notes.  Nobody wants to take a fall for being environmentally irresponsible so present stock must be used first.   I don't expect the Bank of Canada to make a change until 2025 (especially since money seems to be very low on the government's priorities). 

It should be interesting to see how this unfolds.

*Revised 5/12

When did Bermuda become a republic? 

@PeterJHalford - I suspect they've made a slight slip on the keyboard. It was Barbados (not Bermuda) which became a republic in November 2021. Barbados has been an independent nation since 1966, but remained as a Commonwealth Realm (I.e. Had the British Monarch as the nominal head of state) until 2021.

Bermuda is still a British Overseas Territory rather than an independent nation. I'm not particularly well versed in Bermuda's politics, but as I understand it, they generally seem happy to retain that status and haven't taken any recent steps to change that, nor have the UK Government taken any steps to force change.

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Back on topic, it will be interesting to see who makes the change first. So far as I can tell using Numista, no nation has actually issued new circulating “standard” coins or banknotes with him on.

Judging by the information available, it seems that the first coin is issued about a year after the Monarch becomes the Monarch. E.g. Edward VII's first coin was issued 1902, George V 1911, George VI 1937, and Elizabeth II 1953. Co-incidentally, they're all the UK coins. Any Commonwealth or Empire Realm was either the same or later. The 2022 CR III coin is actually a bit of an oddity being issued so swiftly - though again, it is only a commemorative issue which seems to be a fairly modern conception. Virtually all earlier UK coins were for general circulation rather than as “collectables”.

There is a slight change with circulating banknotes - some Commonwealth/Empire realms did issue new notes featuring Elizabeth II in 1952 (Such as Belize or Hong Kong), though it seems she was the first recent Monarch to have this distinction. Perhaps environmental concerns were not as big in 1952 - or maybe they just didn't have the surplus in reserve & these earlier paper banknotes did tend to need replacing quite often anyway.

A Collector

@PeterJHalford - I suspect they've made a slight slip on the keyboard. It was Barbados (not Bermuda) which became a republic in November 2021. Barbados has been an independent nation since 1966, but remained as a Commonwealth Realm (I.e. Had the British Monarch as the nominal head of state) until 2021.

 

Bermuda is still a British Overseas Territory rather than an independent nation. I'm not particularly well versed in Bermuda's politics, but as I understand it, they generally seem happy to retain that status and haven't taken any recent steps to change that, nor have the UK Government taken any steps to force change.

 

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Back on topic, it will be interesting to see who makes the change first. So far as I can tell using Numista, no nation has actually issued new circulating “standard” coins or banknotes with him on.

Judging by the information available, it seems that the first coin is issued about a year after the Monarch becomes the Monarch. E.g. Edward VII's first coin was issued 1902, George V 1911, George VI 1937, and Elizabeth II 1953. Co-incidentally, they're all the UK coins. Any Commonwealth or Empire Realm was either the same or later. The 2022 CR III coin is actually a bit of an oddity being issued so swiftly - though again, it is only a commemorative issue which seems to be a fairly modern conception. Virtually all earlier UK coins were for general circulation rather than as “collectables”.

 

There is a slight change with circulating banknotes - some Commonwealth/Empire realms did issue new notes featuring Elizabeth II in 1952 (Such as Belize or Hong Kong), though it seems she was the first recent Monarch to have this distinction. Perhaps environmental concerns were not as big in 1952 - or maybe they just didn't have the surplus in reserve & these earlier paper banknotes did tend to need replacing quite often anyway.

There was a referendum in 1995 about independence for Bermuda - which was shot down & Sir John Swan resigned as Premier of Bermuda, as he was campaigning for Bermuda to become independent.

Aidan.